Quite a few medical conditions elude our attempts at curing them. In some cases, they also elude our attempts to treat them effectively. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one such condition. Sometimes it’s treated with success, using a variety of cognitive and behavioral therapies, medications or both.
We know little about how the disorder progresses or how it can be cured in the long-term — and that’s a problem for returning service members who have defended America’s interests abroad with their lives.
How Big Is the Problem?
The prevalence of PTSD in American society is significant. An estimated 7.8 percent of the entire American population will experience symptoms of PTSD at some point. Women are also twice as likely as men (10.4% vs. 5%) to develop the condition.
A traumatic, also known as a “triggering,” event, occurs to cause PTSD. For men, the most likely events include rape, childhood neglect, physical abuse and combat exposure. The most likely events for women are rape and sexual molestation, being threatened or attacked with a weapon, childhood abuse and physical abuse.
If you’ve heard about the country’s problem with PTSD, it was likely in the context of military service. It’s mentioned as one of the most common triggering events for men, but not for women. However, women now have the right to serve in combat roles, so this will likely change in the near future.
During two of the United States’ most recent formal military actions in the Middle East (Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom), a reported 11-20% of soldiers experienced PTSD. For context, compare this with 12% of soldiers in the Gulf War and approximately 15% in the Vietnam War.
Clearly, we haven’t gotten much better about addressing the problem.
Do We Take Care of Our Own?
Service members undoubtedly take the burden of war back home with them. Between trading fire with unseen combatants and witnessing the aftermath of drone strikes or bombings firsthand, instances of PTSD in the armed forces are high.
The introduction of service animals, which we generally view as a positive influence, has the potential to cause grief and anxiety when the animals fall in the line of duty. Most of us have felt the sting of losing a treasured pet — 87 percent of pet owners have experienced this type of grief — but the loss of a service animal who has braved deadly conditions with you must be particularly trying.
With so many ways to bring the war back home with them, why aren’t we doing more to support our veterans? Why are so many of our leaders comfortable with sending healthy people into harm’s way, if we’re going to turn a blind eye to the consequences once they return home?
Defense spending represents about half the federal government’s discretionary spending. Of that, healthcare represents $52.5 billion, or 9.5% — that’s a lot of money. Similar to all the money our country spends on healthcare, you’d be right to wonder why we’re not getting more bang for our buck.
And then there’s this: Troops diagnosed with PTSD cost the VA $8,300 per year of treatment, which is five times as much as it costs to treat a soldier without PTSD symptoms. Clearly, we owe it to ourselves to study this malady in greater detail — if only for the sake of our wallets.
But, of course, monetary practicality is only one consideration when ethics is involved. Do we not owe our soldiers better treatment for a condition that affects them disproportionately, compared with the general population?
Here are some other reasons to pursue PTSD research — all of which have nothing to do with money:
• Trauma, in general, is common. It’s experienced at least once by about 60% of the American population. PTSD research isn’t only for soldiers — it’s for everybody who lives with the weight of a traumatic past.
• The human body and mind reacts in a very personalized way to stress, including PTSD. Furthering research into this area will reveal how everyday stressors become more complex mental and emotional conditions, such as PTSD.
• There is no go-to treatment to address PTSD — current approaches are tailored to the individual, with no guarantee for success. PTSD needs to be understood in its entirety in order to be treated confidently and definitively in people who suffer from it.
We simply don’t understand PTSD well enough right now — and it’s an issue that’s hardly exclusive to military and ex-military personnel.
None of this will matter with the mental health stigma still intact. Most people from Generation X and previous generations were trained to go through life with their feelings bottled up. We’re only beginning to accept post-traumatic stress, addiction, anxiety and depression as legitimate medical conditions. Once that barrier has fallen away completely, we can take a more focused look at our budget and include mental health in the ongoing discussions about how to make healthcare a right of citizenship.
The United Nations already recognizes that freedom in general isn’t possible unless it’s accompanied by freedom from illness. America, sadly, for quite some time, has been failing many of its citizens who need of that kind of freedom. We all know we can do better.